Generations Past
by sumeragi-san
Summary: Setsuka tells a young Seishirou the story about the Sakurazukamori's origins


**Generations Past**  
Written by **Jeldi**

Series: Tokyo Babylon  
Rating: PG  
Pairing: None

This fic explores one possible history of the Sakurazuka clan. This seed of an idea sprung up out of the blue when several things I was studying collided in a brilliant explosion. This happened in one of my college courses, so unfortunately my linguistics notes were taken over by notes for the story. No specific spoilers, but knowing of the Sakurazukamori is important.

Disclaimer: Seishirou and Setsuka belong to CLAMP. This fic is just for entertainment and to express a theory I have on the origin of the Sakurazukamori. Don't sue, no profit…and if I read CLAMP's website correctly they don't mind anyway.

**Generations Past**

"Seishirou, come over here and sit with me beneath the tree," Setsuka said and smiled, motioning to the young boy, no more than nine years old, who was standing at the threshold out into the gardens. He had recently come to the house to live with her; her keepers told him that she was his mother. False, that statement, but she let their lie slide as easily as she would one of her own.

The youth looked around, taking in the odd garden with its sakura trees in full bloom and the camellia bushes beginning to sprout buds of blood red. Her painted lips curved into another smile, remembering that she had done the same when she had first been brought to this house. Always the calculated observation of one trained to take the place of the current Sakurazukamori. She was growing fond of her young charge rather quickly. She had the feeling that this one would be the one to take her place.

As he walked down the path to join her, she settled down at the base of the tree, her kimono and jet black hair pooling out around her. Continuing to smile at the young boy, she held out both hands toward him. Starring at her detachedly for a moment, she could see the indecision in his amber gaze. She simply waited.

After a moment, his gaze changed to passive indifference and Seishirou settled beside her, folded within the draping sleeves of her kimono. She reached to pick up a small sakura blossom that had found its way to the ground. She looked up at the bough they leaned against and stated, "This tree is very important to us. It watches over and protects us and we in turn do the same for it."

Seishirou's gaze shifted between her and the tree. Obvious to her, he was weighing the truth of her words. She giggled at his serious look before giving him the blossom and pulling him close. She then spoke in a soft storytelling voice, "I want to tell you a story. A story from long ago, before our clan existed," Setsuka smiled as she saw the boy's passive gaze reflect a hint of interest.

During the late court culture, onmyoujutsu was in its peak of popularity. Strong spiritual families were highly sought after to divine from the stars and to perform exorcisms and purifications. The Sumeragi clan was, of course, the clan at the forefront of those families that pursued onmyoujutsu. Their clan was large, comprised of the main family and several branch families. Some of these families went by the name Sumeragi, yet others kept their own surnames.

The clan head of the Sumeragi was supposedly the most powerful of the generation, and in court you would hear whispers on the wind of the calm young leader with the fine jet-black hair and the vivid green eyes. Anyone that had an ear into the court knew of this polite man and he was the focus of much attention of both male and female persuasion. The head of the clan had a younger sister as well, though females went without much notice in most cases. She had married a man from outside the family and they had formed a branch family to the main family. She was with child before her husband died, and her male child was born mentally deficient. Without a suitable heir to the branch family, she sought out council with her brother. He had told her of a young boy that had been brought to the Sumeragi household in Kyoto; a boy that was nearly as talented in the art as he himself. This boy was the only one of his family with the talent for onmyoujutsu and they felt it best to present him to the Sumeragi family for training. He advised her that this boy would be a good choice for an adoptive head into the branch.

This boy was Sakurai Kurouji, who would come to be a large influence on the creation of our clan. Though he came from a family that knew little of the art, Sakurai-sama was a quick study under the tutelage of the Sumeragi school. He grew to thirst for knowledge and learn everything his masters had to teach him. He had even taken to discussing finer points of the art with the clan head.

At a young age, he was appointed as the head of the branch family and Sakurai-sama began to take requests for purifications and blessings, along with the occasional exorcism. Though he was nearly as talented as his adoptive mother's brother, the main clan always overshadowed his efforts. No matter his achievements, there was rarely any notice given to a minor branch family even if it was warranted.

Continuing in his duties, he became disillusioned to the life of a Sumeragi. Though he acknowledged the vast amount they had taught him and he was grateful for that, he felt something lacking in his life's goal. At birth it had been divined that he would bring about a great change and yet it seemed that with his current place in life, he would never achieve that end.

Sakurai-sama was always pouring over books, though he had always read those that were assigned or suggested by one of his masters. Some of the practices that he was taught felt frivolous in practice and he sought out ways to make the art more efficient. His previous masters frowned upon his additional studies; he consulted texts that were not a part of the studies of a Sumeragi onmyouji. He read anything the library had to offer and even secreted a few of the texts out of the forbidden collection.

As he began experimenting with what he learned, the clan head came down on him like a swift wind telling him that he was practicing forbidden arts and threatening punishment. From that point on, he continued to study in secret and kept his revelations to himself. As time went on, he began to realize the Sumeragi training was weak and they didn't use their abilities to their full potential. Out of frustration with Sumeragi edict, Sakurai-sama cut off all connections with the main family. Under the umbrella of the Sumeragi clan, the branch would always be a shadow.

Taking on his own family's name he began to study more of the books he had stolen from the Sumeragi library. He would develop a new style of onmyoujutsu that would define his clan from that of the Sumeragi.

Without the watchful gaze of the Sumeragi clan head, Sakurai-sama was able to expand and build upon the spells and training that had been frowned upon by his former masters and peers. From an amassed amount of texts, he developed his own spells and invocations. The Sumeragi clan was late in realizing it had lost any control over Sakurai, and thus labeled his skills "dark onmyoujutsu".

However, this did not stop Sakurai-sama's thirst for the creation of a clan that would rival the Sumeragi clan. He searched even Chinese and Indian texts for the means to make the clan strong.

Decades after the break from the Sumeragi clan, Sakurai-sama was walking amidst sakura trees in the court, contemplating a particular passage from a scroll he had read. Paying little attention to his meandering, a young boy, perhaps age eight or nine stumbled into him. This boy was a Sumeragi, his bright green eyes and fine black hair gave him away in an instant. What was odd however, was the large half crumbling tomb that he carried. The boy had been sent from the Sumeragi clan's library, entrusted with the task to burn the book for whatever reasons the clan had deemed. He seemed distressed at destroying such a rare and important item.

Having played to the child's conscience, Sakurai-sama cajoled the boy into giving him this book and that it would be a secret between the two. The little boy hesitated at first, but Sakurai-sama's charm won out in the end and he yielded the book with relief. Little did either know that the young heir of the Sumeragi clan had given the future head of the Sakurazuka clan exactly what he needed.

Within this text, Sakurai-sama read about shikigami and their various forms and applications. As a studying onmyouji of the Sumeragi clan, he had been taught to create only one form, an elegant dove-like white creature. What he learned from this text was the means to create a shikigami in other forms…a manifestation that became our precious Sakura Tree.

This alone did not provide Sakurai-sama with the means to create a stronger form of onmyoujutsu. He moved far from court culture and began his research anew in a new household that was built outside of Edo. With this new knowledge, he poured back over his texts once again, focusing on the possibility of imbuing a shikigami with the ability and power of its master.

After much searching, Sakurai-sama found that if the caster bound his spirit to the shikigami, it would be able to carry on after his death. Knowing that the shikigami must be properly cared for after his death, he developed another spell to bind the heir to the will of the tree and himself. In order to work, the spell would have to be augmented by a regular replenishment of energy. By locking body and souls to the Tree, it would gain in strength and in exchange provide a reservoir of power to the tree's "guardian".

After all of his research and spell creation was finished, Sakurai-sama sat in mediation for days preparing for the ritual. Since Sakurai-sama had chosen to have no family of his own in exchange for his studies, a youth was chosen as the first successor to the clan. He observed in silence as Sakurai-sama meditated. Though he knew of the role he was expected to fill, he feared it all the same. A single sealed envelope from Sakurai-sama remained in his care. Until the invocations were done, the scroll was to remain sealed; a ward over the opening would alert Sakurai-sama to any tampering. This youth had speculated it was final words from the previous head should he succeed in this endeavor.

Sakurai-sama came out of his trance after several days and led the future clan head out into the courtyard of the household, which is where Ueno Koen now resides today. Sitting on cushions set out by servants, the current and future head of the clan settled facing one another. Sakurai-sama began his invocation, first calling forth the form of a great flowering sakura tree with a chant of short clipped syllables. Following through to the second portion of the spell, he pulled forth two pitch-black ofuda inscribed with a golden reversed pentagram, and cast one and the tree's trunk. The second he placed over the boy's heart and intoned a long chant, binding his soul to the tree as its guardian. Pulling one more ofuda from his sleeve, he crossed his fingers in an intricate pattern holding the paper between his hands. Continuing to chant, his voice resonated in the courtyard, the only sound save for the breeze rustling the blossoms of the Tree. The courtyard seemed timeless as Sakurai-sama recited his chant. As his voice drowned down to the end, he released the remains of the ofuda from his hands, the wind catching the ashes and scattering them. With his soul bound to the tree at his death Sakurai had finished the ritual, and retired to his rooms. He died a few days later.

The new head opened the scroll to find a set of detailed instructions for carrying out his "duty"; how to kill and bind the souls to the tree, how the next head will succeed to the role. Later, from these instructions a book was made and passed down through the generations. In addition, there was a request included from Sakurai, asking that the clan's name be changed to Sakurazuka. Likewise from there the anonymous clan head would be known as the Sakurazukamori or "Cherry Tree Barrow Guardian". Of the roles that Sakurai-sama had detailed, there was one that would come to haunt the new head further down the line.

Trying his best to ignore the fear, he carried out his duty to the Sakura; each death at his hand taking its toll on his heart. Vowing that the next head would not have to endure the pain as he did, the head trained his successor from a young age not to acknowledge any emotion.

'_If you are emotionless, the duty will be nothing.'_ '_Emotions are weak and will get in the way of your duty.'_ '_Once you succumb to a pure emotion, your focus becomes tainted and _ _your reign as the Sakurazukamori is over.'_

Setsuka reached out to catch a falling petal as it drifted down before saying, "And thus has every generation worked the same. Once a Sakurazukamori learns how to feel, a new generation of the clan comes."

She looked at the boy enfolding in her kimono sleeves and smiled. Looking up into the intertwining branches of the sakura she continued, "My day will come, and I will allow myself to be killed by the one I love. As will you, Seishirou. Such is the way our fate works."

The boy had relaxed as her tale unfolded though she could tell that he had listened with the impassive nature he had greeted her with initially. She drew him up with her as she stood from her resting-place against the sakura tree. Taking his small hand in her delicate one, she led him down the path toward his future.


End file.
